Comparing E-Readers — And Tablets | November 2011

This chart’s a lot bigger than it used to be. Each brand here has introduced at least one new e-reader in the past six months, and Kindle, Nook and Kobo are all launching tablets this month, in competition with the iPad and with each other. Barnes & Noble gave us a preview of the trend when it launched the Nook Color in 2010, but that device is primarily a glorified e-reader with color. The Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet aim to be true media tablets, combining video, web browsing and apps with e-reading functionality, while the Vox is reminiscent of the Nook Color in its focus on reading over other forms of media consumption. It remains to be seen whether consumers will consider the Fire, Nook Tablet and Vox to be e-readers and tablets in one, or if they’ll save their serious book time for dedicated e-readers, whose prices are dropping by the day.

More of a color e-reader than a tablet, now getting a price drop and some more “tablet-like” features as a free update

More storage space than the Kindle Fire, but there’s no Barnes & Noble store for video or music

Since Pottermore postponed their e-book store launch until 2012, the first book download coupon is not currently available, as was previously planned.

Kobo focuses on social features, “gamification” of reading

*Although the Amazon Kindle Fire and the Barnes & Noble Nook Tablet are tablet devices, we’ve included them in this e-reader chart to see how they compare to the other Kindle and Nook devices as well as other e-readers.